We’re continuing down the ever-expanding rabbit hole of music creation on Mac and iOS this year with product reviews, tutorials, tips/tricks for Logic users, and much more. That includes tutorial installments, new instruments/FX for Logic users, the best peripherals/controllers and much more.
Want more Logic Pros? Check out the archives below and stay tuned for a new installment each week in 2017.
This is the place to catch up on all the biggest product announcements, hardware, apps, synths, Logic/GarageBand instruments and so much more in the world of iOS/Mac music production. This week, Musikmesse 2017 in Frankfurt kicked off with a new flagship synth from Waldorf and Arturia’s all-in-one KeyLab Essential MIDI keyboard controllers for Mac/iOS. We also saw the release of one of the most powerful iOS music apps on the the market with Audiobus 3.
For more details and to see what a $20,000 custom-made synth looks like, head below for all of this week’s top iOS & Mac music production news:
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In our first four Logic Pros 101 installments, we introduced you to the Logic Pro X interface, built some solid groundwork on the basics of recording, and broke down some of the complexities of the Mixer. We also detailed Plug-in and Software interfaces in order to get you started making music as fast as possible.
The best way to learn anything is to actually use it and enjoy doing so, so today we take a (very brief) mid-semester break to go over some tips to help you supercharge the recording, editing, and workflow basics we’ve learned so far. They range from organizational suggestions and lesser known features, to some absolutely imperative navigational/editing techniques for anyone looking to master the ways of LPX:
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This is the place to catch up on all the biggest product announcements, hardware, apps, synths, Logic/GarageBand instruments and so much more in the world of iOS/Mac music production. This week, we say goodbye to an old friend, Cubasis for iOS gets some major new enhancements, we have an epic new AU instrument from Spitifire and the fantastic Magellan synth is 50% off on mobile. But most exciting of all, we get a brand new walkthrough video of what has to be the absolute best iPhone companion device ever: the OP-Z from Teenage Engineering!
All this and more in this week’s top iOS & Mac music production news:
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Elektron is well known for its innovative hardware instruments like Octatrack, Analog Rtym/Keys and more. But today we are looking at the new Analog Heat Stereo Processing unit. The company has brought much of its forward-thinking sensibilities to an otherwise non-remarkable product category here: outboard analog effects. These and similar effects units are commonly used for adding subtle warmth to vocal tracks or entire mixes, to viscous levels of distortion and more. It’s equipped with 8 distortion circuits, a filter, and what can only be described as a sort of magical integration with Logic Pro X and other major DAWs. It uses the company’s phenomenal Overbridge technology to work the same way a typical virtual plug-in does.
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This is the place to catch up on the week’s biggest product announcements for music making on your Mac and iOS device, including hardware, apps, synths, Logic/GarageBand instruments and so much more. This week we get another glimpse of Elektron’s new Digitakt drum computer, Output’s interesting new Analog String instrument, a huge release day discount on Korg Gadget for Mac, a completely free modular-virtual synth, and much more…
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Now that we have a good understanding of the Workspace, recording basics, the various Channel Strip elements, as well as how to balance it all on the Mixer, this week on Logic Pros 101 it’s all about plug-ins.
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One of the best things about widely supported DAWs like Logic Pro X is the wealth of third-party plug-ins available from both large companies and smaller developers. And today on Logic Pros, we are looking at SLOO, a new software synth that runs via the Native Instruments Reaktor platform (version 6 only).
SLOO, or Shed Loads of Oscillators, is a unique voice swarm synth that makes use of 48 oscillators or synth voices to create fantastical sounds. Everything from your typical lead synth on acid to some of the weirdest and complex modulations I have ever heard. Let’s take a look:
KRFT for iOS takes a unique approach to music production and performance allowing producers to not only create the musical notes, melodies and chords in a particular song or set, but also the Surface with which it will be performed on.
Using a simple system of touch-controlled geometric shapes, users can arrange a series of hand-crafted loops, drum beats, modifier Dials, Morph buttons and more into a custom-made performance control surface. Due to the almost modular nature with which the app treats the various elements of your song, KRFT’s performance Surface becomes a new and interesting way for coming up with entire song arrangements as you morph riffs and beats with the app’s built-in effects. Here’s how it works:
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In this weeks episode of Logic Pros, we are taking a look at the new Apogee Element Thunderbolt audio interfaces. Apogee has sat atop the world of digital audio conversion for quite some time now. Its premium Thunderbolt Ensemble and flagship Symphony interfaces are among the top choices for industry professionals in terms of overall sound quality and unwavering support for Apple’s pro computers. The company has also dipped into the home/portable market with a series of fantastic boxes that bring Apogee’s professional mic-pres and D/A converter tech to a much more affordable price point with the One, Duet and Quartet.
These new Thunderbolt audio interfaces for Mac represent a sweet spot in Apogee’s lineup, using the best technology from the company’s higher end machines while stripping out some of the bells and whistles to bring the price down drastically. That means they’re now the best value in the lineup in terms of the number of ins and outs you get versus the company’s less expensive One and Duet products, and the more expensive Quartet, and Ensemble products. You sacrifice physical controls and a display for metering on the box, but Apogee makes up for it with slick Mac and iOS apps, integration with Logic, and a new separate remote accessory…
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In the first two installments of our new Logic Pros 101 series, we gave you an introduction to the interface and got you started with some recording and editing basics. This week, we dive into Channel Strips and the Mixer that houses them, a key to understanding how effects work and controlling the recordings on the tracks we created in previous lessons.
For last week’s installment of our Logic Pros series, I wrote about the new Touch Bar support in the recently released latest version of Logic Pro X. It turns out Final Cut Pro users have good reason to be jealous; and other apps could benefit a lot from implementing what Logic has done. It’s some of the best support yet, and one feature specifically, fully customizable banks of buttons for keyboard shortcuts, is something I’d love to see other apps adopt.
Final Cut Pro, GarageBand and other Apple apps got Touch Bar support at launch, but what Logic Pro X ended up getting beats them all.
With Logic Pro X 10.3, Apple introduced support for the new MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar, the small touchscreen panel that debuted on the device last fall. Logic users might have had to wait longer than Final Cut Pro or even GarageBand users as one of Apple’s main apps that didn’t get support right at launch, but what it did end up getting is some of the best Touch Bar support yet. Let’s take a look.
In our first Logic Pros 101, a new series where we teach you the basics of Apple’s professional audio production suite, we gave you a tour of the interface to get you started. This week, we step into recording basics and get your feet wet with creating tracks, recording, and some simple editing and arranging fundamentals.
In this week’s episode of Logic Pros, we are stepping into the world of Exhale. A perfect follow-up to our review of Output’s Substance bass engine, the company’s Exhale Kontakt instrument for Logic Pros X (and other DAWs) boasts a wide array of vocal samples, loops and phrases fed through a complex synthesis engine resulting in one of the coolest vocal plugins for Logic I’ve used in a long time.
Outside of typical, organic lead vocals, many of the sounds made with voices in contemporary music (think vocal samples and effects used in electronic and hip-hop music) are often done with your basic sampler like an EXS 24 or in specialty instruments like Alchemy. But Exhale adds in some cool tricks for pros while offering up an almost dubstep-voice-in-a-box synth for beginners.
If you’re new to audio recording and editing on your Mac, or upgrading from GarageBand or another audio recording suite to Apple’s Logic Pro X, Logic Pros 101 has you covered.
In this first installment, we give you an introduction to the app with a tour of its user interface. In the future, we’ll break down basic recording and editing features, using virtual instruments and effects, and much, much more:
Last week Apple released Logic Pro X 10.3 with a ton of new features for pros and a refreshed user interface. In today’s Logic Pros, we give you the rundown on the update’s new iCloud syncing feature that lets you easily send your session to GarageBand for iOS.
With the new feature, you now have a one-tap method to send a reference of what you’re working on in Logic over to Garageband, allowing you to continue working on it outside of the studio anywhere you might have an iPhone or iPad. Any tracks and edits you make automatically get synced back to Logic for when you return to the studio.
Here’s how it works:
(Update 4/19 2021): Apple Music Connect was discontinued. Read how to get your music video on Apple Music with a distribution partner right here.
Apple Music Connect, which allows artists to share photos, videos and songs with their fans on Apple Music, has changed a bit since the introduction of iOS 10 back in September. The content artists upload now appears in different locations within the newly updated Apple Music app on iOS 10 for listeners. It remains, however, a powerful tool for sharing new music and videos, clips of upcoming releases, and everything else beyond your main releases on Apple Music, iTunes and the other streaming services.
The user interface for uploading has changed slightly, and Apple has introduced new tools for Connect since it first launched that allows users to create and share an embedded web player and more. You’ll also be able to attach music videos to your albums on Apple Music using Connect.
Here’s how it works:
From 9to5Toys.com
NAMM 2017 is officially in full swing this week, which means product unveilings galore for the latest and greatest in music and audio production gear. We’ve been covering some of the bigger announcements on 9to5Toys (and on 9to5Mac), but below we’ve rounded up the best of the best so you don’t miss anything. Check back for more NAMM product announcements as the show continues over the weekend.
From 9to5Toys.com
While you’re likely too busy with today’s Logic Pro X update at the moment, we are getting some new iOS/Mac gear from IK today:
IK Multimedia is well known for its lineup of great sounding and affordable recoding interfaces for iOS and Mac. Whether its the iRig HD 2 for guitar players or the iRig Pro Duo for producers and songwriters, the company has just about every kind of musician, podcaster and music maker covered at a reasonable price point. And now, straight out of NAMM 2017, IK is announcing the brand new all-in-one iRig Pro I/O for iPhone, iPad and Mac. As its name suggests, just about every type of connectivity option your typical musician would need at home or on the road is present here.
Apple is today releasing a new version of its Logic Pro X audio production suite and it’s a big one. Not only does version 10.3 introduce Touch Bar support for MacBook Pro in a way that might be the most ambitious yet— they are fully customizable and go well beyond what GarageBand has— the update also includes a refreshed user interface and many top requested features by pros.
Alongside an update for Logic Pro X today to version 10.3, GarageBand for iOS is also getting an update that introduces Logic integration, a refreshed design, and a handful of new features.
Perhaps most notably, version 2.2 of GarageBand for iPhone and iPad introduces a mobile version of the Alchemy virtual synth that it picked up through its Camel Audio acquisition and first integrated into Logic last summer.
It’s 2017 and Logic Pros is back! We’re continuing down the ever-expanding rabbit hole of music creation on Mac and iOS this year with product reviews, tutorials, tips/tricks for Logic users, and much more. That includes a weekly installment (starting with this one!), and an upcoming Logic Pro X 101 guide for beginners.
Virtual instrument maker Output has been on a roll lately releasing hit after hit for Logic Pro X producers. Its vocal-synth engine, Exhale, is fantastic (more on that down the road), not to mention the rest of company’s innovative and easy-to-use products like Movement, Signal and REV. But today, it’s all about that bass…
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Moog Music has been known for producing some of the most popular synthesizers since the 70s— we reviewed a couple of the newer models in our Logic Pros series and noted that iPad/Mac synths still can’t quite capture the experience of even a $1,000 Moog. But today Moog is releasing its own iPad and iPhone version of its popular $10,000 Model 15, aiming to offer a similar experience in a $30 mobile app.
Moog’s own techs helped program the app at the Moog Factory in Asheville, NC, according to the company, with the app both resembling the look and sound of the original 1970’s Model 15 hardware:
In this week’s episode of The Logic Pros, we are diving into the media browser. More specifically, ways in which we can move ideas and tracks between sessions. While saving presets is a very handy feature, is doesn’t help as much when we want to move entire channel strips, along with the associated midi/audio performances, sends, I/O, and more from session to session:
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